March 29, 1999

A Story

This story is about a young man who goes to college. He has a fascination with looking and with windows, but he is not a voyeur or a pervert; he just looks at one window. The window is too far off the ground and furthermore, the shade is always down.

It took a while and a bit of work for him to find this window. As he walked through the actual dorm, he had to keep articulate mental notes.

"The hallway bulges forward here... then it bulges back... forward... here's some room that doesn't have a window... I've got to remember that... the hall turns to the right about twenty feet afterwards... that's everything I need."

Eventually he knew the room and the window, and so he was able to steal a casual glance from time to time up at that window. Sometimes the light was off, but most often it was on. He took great pains at times to go by that window, perplexing several onlookers who knew he did not live close by enough to warrant such a bizarre path.

He never actually saw into that window. The shades were always down, the window firmly shut. Sometimes at night he would stand there for a short time, staring up at that window, but never did any soul-eyes look back down at him.

As he looked up, he thought about not much, mainly just stories he knew of windows high above the ground. Stories often have answers to life's problems, he knew.

Once, he thought of Rapunzel and how her letting down he hair had solved the plot, but with this young man, he was the hero, and not her. His hair could not be let down, and it would take someone to open that window to let down hers.

Other stories were not as helpful. Sometimes he just wanted to quit everything and just stand there for a hundred days, but then he would grow cold and turn in. He was not vigilant enough. No rocks could be found, and even if he did, the thought of accidental vandalism did not weigh well on his conscience.

So, this young man just lived day by day, night by night, walking past that window always looking up. The light was usually on, the shade always down, and never a pair of soul-eyes looking back in return.